Song of the Shank by Jeffery Renard Allen

Song of the Shank by Jeffery Renard Allen

A contemporary American masterpiece about music, race, an unforgettable man, and an unreal America during the Civil War era

At the heart of this remarkable novel is Thomas Greene Wiggins, a nineteenth-century slave and improbable musical genius who performed under the name Blind Tom.
Song of the Shank opens in 1866 as Tom and his guardian, Eliza Bethune, struggle to adjust to their fashionable apartment in the city in the aftermath of riots that had driven them away a few years before. But soon a stranger arrives from the mysterious island of Edgemere--inhabited solely by African settlers and black refugees from the war and riots--who intends to reunite Tom with his now-liberated mother.
As the novel ranges from Tom's boyhood to the heights of his performing career, the inscrutable savant is buffeted by opportunistic teachers and crooked managers, crackpot healers and militant prophets. In his symphonic novel, Jeffery Renard Allen blends history and fantastical invention to bring to life a radical cipher, a man who profoundly changes all who encounter him.

Allen, Jeffery Renard: - Jeffery Renard Allen holds a doctorate in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is currently an Associate Professor of English at Queens College of the City University of New York and an instructor in the graduate writing program at the New School for Social Research. He has published essays, poems, and fiction in many literary journals.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781555976804
ISBN 10	1555976808
Title	Song of the Shank
Author	Jeffery Renard Allen
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Graywolf Press
Year published	2014-06-17
Number of pages	608
Prizes	Commended for PEN/Faulkner Award 2015
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.